บท 106: Harribel vs Quincy
***Author Note***
Well, as you might or might not know, I'm German, and the Quincy's attack names are also German. And let's just say... the German they use is very...meh.
Anyway, I internally debated whether I should fix that or not, but in the end, I decided not to do so to prevent confusion.
***End of Author Note***
Harribel quickly followed Appaci to the place where Quincy were supposedly attacking Hueco Mundo and found herself rather quickly at a gathering of Quincy and Hollow. Well, the battlefield would probably be the better word, as she could even spot her other two followers fighting a glasses-wearing man in white clothes wielding a sword.
Harribel was rather certain that Quincy were supposed to use bows, but she didn't think about it too much, as Mila Rose was about to receive a dangerous wound.
With a quick [Sonido], Harribel vanished from her position and appeared between Mila Rose and the unknown man, allowing her to block the incoming attack with her blade.
"Harribel-sama!"
Naturally, Mila Rose was happy seeing Harribel here and quickly prepared herself to continue fighting.
Meanwhile, Harribel was eyeing the man in front of her with curiosity, wondering why the man in front of her had even bothered to come here to Hueco Mundo, a place where only Hollow and sand existed.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?"
"Ahh, Tier Harribel~ I was looking forward to meeting the queen of Hueco Mundo. I'm Quilge Opie, the Executive Hunting Captain of the 1st Jagdarmee. As for why I am here: I want to recruit you."
"Recruite?"
How could Harribel not be confused by those words? After all, Quincy and Hollow were straight-up mortal enemies. The existence of one of them is basically poison for the other. Why the hell would a Quincy want to recruit a Hollow? Well, there obviously is still the option that Opie was not a Quincy, but Harribel was pretty sure that only Yuna would be willing to align herself with Hollow casually.
"That's right! Surrender and become part of our army! There is no greater glory than serving under his majesty! Join us, and experience the supreme joy of serving him!"
Hearing Opie's words, brimming with fanatic, Harribel could only shake her head in denial.
"Not interested. I'm firmly aligned with Yuna and nobody else."
"Oh? Yuna? Yuna Uzumaki, right? One of the people assigned the title of 'Special War Potential', acknowledged by even his majesty for her unparalleled stealth!
Naturally, she can join us as well! A mere human serving his majesty is the greatest glory she could ever achieve! Unlike that Kurosaki fool, I heard she doesn't care much about Soul Society, so I'm confident she will join our side after realizing our power!"
There was a brief awkward silence after Opie finished his little speech as Harribel and her three girls looked at Opie like he was wearing clown makeup and was honking with his nose.
"Just so there are no misunderstandings, you regard Yuna as a threat due to her stealth, right?"
"Mhh? Isn't that natural? Despite invading Seireitei, she managed to stay undetected for most of the time, and no matter how many people were searching for her, no one could find her."
"*Sigh* This is already a lost cause."
Realizing that her opponent basically had zero intel on Yuna, Harribel could only sigh in defeat while oozing some pity. Of course, that Opie had no intel about Yuna wasn't exactly his fault, as when she fought, she always did so in not-so-easy-to-reach locations.
The Quincy had been spying on the Shinigami through the shadows of Seireitei for a very long time now, but unfortunately, that wouldn't reveal much about Yuna's capabilities, as the only fight she headed outside of Kisuke's secured underground space was against Rangiku and Kira, were she was only playing around.
Next came her fights within Hueco Mundo, which Quincy couldn't spy on, and finally, her fight against Aizen, which took place in a sealed Karakura Town.
In conclusion, the Quincy didn't even know that Yuna was capable of using ice.
Fully understanding the position the Quincy were in, Harribel could only sadly shake her head while shooing Opie away.
"Anyway, leave now. There is no point in you being here."
"What!? So you reject my offer!?"
"Yes, I do. My loyalty for Yuna aside, why would I join a faction that is about to be crushed?"
"CRUSHED!? How dare you insult his majesty's army like this!? Very well, I wasn't happy about having filthy Hollow as our troops anyway, so it is time to die now!"
The moment he stopped speaking, he swung his sword, resulting in multiple arrows made out of Spiritual Power flying at Harribel, who only shook her head and flicked her wrist to turn her Zanpakuto into its Shikai state.
She swung her weapon, resulting in multiple beams of water shooting out of her blade, colliding with the arrows Opie previously shot, canceling them out.
"I'll deal with this one; you guys get rid of the fodder."
"""Yes, Harribel-sama!"""
Hearing Harribel's order, her three Fraccion moved instantly to defeat the remaining Quincy, allowing Harribel to fight Opie in a one-on-one fight. Meanwhile, seeing Harribel's release, Opie couldn't help but frown due to how unusual it was, not realizing that Harribel used Shikai and not her Resurreccion.
Again and again, Opie swung his blade, producing dozens of arrows, but Harribel only swung her blade with disinterest, easily blocking all of Opie's attack almost casually.
This exchange continued for about a minute before Opie stopped attacking. Despite easily being blocked by Harribel, there was still a slight smile on his face, causing Harribel to frown.
"Well, I guess this much is expected of the queen of the Hollow. Very well, seems like I need to get serious. [Quincy Letzt Stil]!"
Suddenly, Spiritual power was sucked into Opie like crazy, instantly putting Harribel on guard while she carefully spectated her surrounding, making sure that none of her girls was close enough to be hit by stray fire.
Moments later, Opie transformed, as a pair of wings made out of light grew on his back, and some kind of halo appeared above his head.
"The real name of this form... is [Quincy Vollständig]."
Although Harribel was on guard now, she still didn't feel much pressure from her opponent. Whether that was due to being used to sparring with Yuna or because her opponent wasn't all that great, she wasn't certain, but she would rather not take a risk, so she decided to get a little serious.
"[Bankai...]"
Unlike Opie, who sucked in massive amounts of Spiritual Power while transforming, the opposite happened during the activation of a Bankai, resulting in massive amounts of Spiritual Power erupting from within the user.
During her conflict with Aizen, Harribel had only known her Zanpakuto's name for a few weeks, so obviously, she was still incapable of Bankai, but now, more than one year later, she had a decent level of mastery over it.
Moments later, the dust from her explosion of Spiritual Power vanished, revealing Harribel wearing a full-body ocean-blue scaled armor with a helmet resembling a shark's head.
Additionally, there were royal purple ornaments all around the helmet that made it look like Harribel was wearing a crown, while nine sharks entirely made out of water were swimming around her in midair.
"...[Shiko no same Nyotei]"
Seeing what Harribel had just done, Opie's eyes widened in surprise. After all, he had never heard about a Hollow using Bankai. Despite his initial shock, a vicious grin appeared on his face as he took out a token.
"Hahaha, I have no idea why you are capable of using Bankai, but this makes the situation even better. My initial target was Kurosaki Ichigo, but this is fine as well. Stealing the Bankai of the sole Hollow who can use it should be quite the achievement, RIGHT!?"
Light erupted out of the token Opie was holding and shot toward Harribel. However, Harribel didn't move at all, as she felt no danger from said light. It was hard to put her finger on it, but somehow, she could tell that touching that light would be a good thing for her. It might be risky, but she trusted her instincts.
Moments later, she was fully engulfed by the light, and she felt... nothing.
"What is this supposed to do?"
While Harribel only grew more and more confused, Opie's face twisted further and further into disbelief. Before he could even fully grasp the situation, the light vanished, and he staggered backward, coughing out some blood in the process.
"I-Impossible! Why can't I steal your Bankai!?"
"Steal my Bankai? That sounds rather dangerous, but I didn't feel anything. Did you get scammed?"
"S-S-Scammed!?"
Harribel's words only confused Opie even further; after all, there was no way that was true, right?
'Scammed? Is that really the truth? There is no way his majesty would do something like that! Why would he trick me into believing that I can steal a Bankai if I can't? That serves no purpose!'
Of course, what neither Harribel nor Opie knew was just how fundamentally hostile Hollow and Quincy were to each other.
The device to steal a Bankai was developed to be used on a Shinigami in the first place, but if that were not the case, and even if there were a specialized device to steal a Hollow's Bankai, it still wouldn't work.
For a Quiny, attempting to seize anything from a Hollow and fusing with it was equivalent to attempting to get the ability to poison things with a bite by allowing a poisonous snake to inject its poison into your body.
Ultimately, Opie's attempt to steal Harribel's Bankai was doomed to fail.
Seeing Opie's distressed state due to receiving backlash from failing to steal her Bankai, Harribel only shook her head in disappointment and appeared in front of him with a quick [Sonido].
Opie's eyes widened due to Harribel suddenly appearing in front of him, but despite his surprise, he still managed to raise his blade in time, blocking Harribel's sword strike.
Unfortunately for him, at the same time, the nine water sharks cycling around Harribel due to her Bankai moved as well, so before Opie could react, nine sets of shark teeth sunk into his body.
"Shit! Skla..."
He tried to use another ability, but before he could do so, the nine sharks had already torn him apart, pretty much killing him instantly, causing Harribel to shake her head in disappointment yet again.
'That seriously was too easy. A little setback and this guy instantly lost his focus. Honestly, how boring. Oh well, at least I got a chance to test out my Bankai against an actual enemy for the first time. So far, I'm rather satisfied ~'
As these thoughts passed her mind, Harribel scanned her surroundings and immediately noticed her Fraccion cleaning up the remaining Quincy rather easily.
'So only one of them had a decent level of strength, huh? Did they really think they could conquer Hueco Mundoo with such a small force?'
Shaking her head with a wry smile, Harribel was about to return to her palace and leave the clean-up to the other Arrancar when something vibrated between her breasts.
Feeling the vibrations, Harribel's hand quickly dove in between her breasts and pulled out a small rectangular device.
Looking at the device's screen, the Name Naruto Uzumaki was displayed, accompanied by a red and a green button.
Seeing that, Harribel clumsily put her finger on the green button before pulling it to the right and putting the device on her ear.
"Harribel here.""
"Oh! It's been a while. Anyway, it seems like some Quincy weirdos have appeared and attacked Seireitei."
Hearing that, Harribel hummed in acknowledgment before briefly describing her situation as well.
"Oh, they went for you as well, Harribel? Well, it seems like they weren't paying much attention to Hueco Mundo since the troops invading Seireite appeared to be a genuine threat to the city. Interested in helping?"
Harribel was just about to decline Naruto's offer when he resumed speaking, causing her to freeze in a weird mix of terror and excitement.
"It seems that someone stole Rangiku's Bankai and even wounded her quite heavily."
A shiver of terror ran through Harribel's spine when she realized the consequences of doing something like that to Rangiku.
"*Gulp* Where is Yuna?"
"It's currently snowing in my living room."
"Oh."
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